A study published this week by Center for Justice Research, a partnership between the office of Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Bowling Green State University, revealed gun crime decreased in six of Ohio’s eight largest cities following the implementation of the constitutional carry law.
Six of Ohio’s eight largest cities saw less gun crime after the state’s “constitutional carry” law took effect, according to a study published today by the Center for Justice Research, a partnership between the office of AG Yost and @bgsu.
Details: https://t.co/6gYnmJOdfe pic.twitter.com/OGCEgYPF2L— Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (@OhioAG) January 3, 2024
Ohio became the 23rd state to allow its citizens to carry a concealed weapon without a permit on June 13, 2022, as previously reported by The Ohio Star. The law allows Ohioans to carry concealed firearms without a permit.
In the year following the law’s implementation, crime involving guns dropped across the Buckeye State’s eight largest cities as a whole and in six of the eight individually, according to the study.
The eight cities analyzed were Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo, Akron, Dayton, Parma, and Canton.
Researchers analyzed data spanning from June 2021 to June 2023, focusing on crimes involving firearms, verified gunshot-detection alerts, and the number of officers struck by gunfire.
The gun crime rate fell the most in Parma by 22 percent. Akron and Toledo saw a decrease of 18 percent. Cleveland and Columbus saw decreases of 6 percent and 11 percent, respectively.
The gun crime rate rose in Dayton and Cincinnati by 6 percent and 5 percent, respectively.
In addition, data compiled from gunshot-detection technology reflected a downward trend, with verified crime incidents dropping 23.2 percent in Toledo and 20.6 percent in Columbus.
“This is not to downplay the very real problem of crime in many neighborhoods in our cities – you don’t need a research team to see that gun violence destroys lives, families and opportunity,” Attorney General Yost said in a statement. “The key takeaway from this study is that we have to keep the pressure on the criminals who shoot people, rather than Ohioans who responsibly exercise their Second Amendment rights.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Concealed Carry” by Clinger Holsters. CC BY-ND 2.0.
